DSEI 2025: SubSea Craft presents Caddis UAS with underwater capability
SubSea Craft's Caddis UAS, which can be launched and recovered underwater, at DSEI 2025. (Janes/Tom Barton)
UK maritime systems company SubSea Craft presented its Caddis specialised unmanned aircraft system (UAS), designed for underwater launch and recovery, at the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) 2025 exhibition held in London from 9 to 12 September.
The Caddis concept emerged from the development of SubSea Craft's Victa diver delivery unit (DDU) and submersible platform.
“If we were doing insertion of special operations forces (SOF), today's battlefield increasingly calls for the team to be able to get its own situational awareness (SA) picture before surfacing,” Lee Ebsworth, chief commercial officer at SubSea Craft, told Janes .
The Caddis uses a ballast package around the UAS body to slowly surface before taking off. In rough sea states the Caddis can right itself and attempt repeated take-offs.
The UAS can carry a 5 kg payload and has a flight-time endurance of 37 minutes.
A key challenge was securing communications between the Caddis, when the operator and/or Caddis are submerged. When submerged, Ebsworth cited systems such as Sonardyne's AvTrak 6 tracking, communications, and relocation transceiver. From either the Victa craft, or from a diver using Subsea Craft's proprietary subsurface screen and controller, modem-like devices, or mesh networks means the Caddis can be controlled in subsurface.
Receiving communications from Caddis when it is airborne and the operator is submerged, as well as landing and recovering the UAS from the water was another challenge. Broadcasting data using antennas and specialist transceivers is possible, with Caddis “controlled through obfuscated means that work over a distance”, said Ebsworth.
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